For over a century, the traditional method of stimulating neural activity has been based on electrical methods, which has undergone few modifications over the years and remains the gold standards to date [1-5]. Electrical stimulation is utilized to identify the connectivity and functionality of specific nerve roots to be selectively avoided or resected [13], to create a unique map of functional structures that varies among individuals [14,15] during brain tumor resection, and to restore function in disabled individuals. However, electrical stimulation is prone to electrical interference from the environment, high frequency artifacts associated with the electrical signal used, intrinsic damage caused by the electrodes used for stimulation themselves, population response due to the recruitment of multiple axons, which prevents simultaneous stimulation and recording of adjacent areas, and in general poor spatial specificity.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.